Translated Viral Prescription Pads

Communication between healthcare providers and patients is crucial, especially about whether antibiotics are appropriate for a particular infection. Explaining why antibiotics won't work for viral infections is a key part of antibiotic stewardship (and a means of combating antimicrobial resistance) — but what happens when English is not a patient's primary language? For many providers in parts of New York, that is a key concern.

Based on the success of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's (CDC) English and Spanish-version "viral prescription pads", the New York State Department of Health has translated the pads into 10 different languages, just as cold and flu season is starting to ramp up. The pads are translated into the following languages: Simple Chinese, Haitian Creole, Italian, Korean, Russian, Cambodian, Burmese, Somali, Arabic and Karen.

The "prescription" is a tangible "takeaway" for patients that will:

educate them about antibiotic resistance;

offer supportive treatment suggestions, such as drinking liquids, using a cool mist vaporizer, using ice chips or sore throat spray; and

give them a contingency plan to check back with the office if they do not feel better in a few days.

Not only will patients benefit from this improved communication, but it might also save providers valuable time when having the conversation about antibiotic use. Limited free copies may be ordered by emailing Mary Beth Wenger at: MaryBeth.Wenger@health.ny.gov.

New York Medicaid Management Information System (NYMMIS) Update

The New York State Department of Health and Conduent Healthcare, LLC have agreed to discontinue their agreement to design, develop, implement, and administer a new Medicaid Management Information System (MMIS). As the new MMIS was in the design phase only, this change will have no impact on providers or on current eMedNY operations.

MEIPASS Password Expirations: EHR Incentive Program

Recently there has been an abundance of providers having difficulty logging into the Medicaid EHR Incentive Program Administrative Support Services (MEIPASS) portal. The issue occurs due to the expiration of passwords in Electronic Provider Assisted Claim Entry System (ePACES). The error message displayed states that the user is not authorized to access the system. This may occur prior to, or after, entering the CMS Registration ID.

To remedy this error the user can simply login to ePACES and reset the password. The user should then be able to access the MEIPASS portal. For any other questions, you may contact the MEIPASS EHR Incentive Program help desk at: (877)646–5410 , Option 1, or by email at: meipasshelp@csra.com.

NY Medicaid EHR Incentive Program Update

The NY Medicaid Electronic Health Records (EHR) Incentive Program provides financial incentives to eligible professionals and hospitals to promote the transition to EHRs. Providers who practice using EHRs are in the forefront of improving quality, reducing costs, and addressing health disparities. Since December 2011, more than $874 million in incentive funds have been distributed through 30,492 payments to New York State Medicaid providers.

Eligible Professionals & Eligible Hospitals Total

Payments Made:

Amount Paid:

30,492

$874,117,171

Happy New Year from the NY Medicaid EHR Incentive Program!

As 2017 comes to an end, the NY Medicaid EHR Incentive Program would like to thank Eligible Professionals and Eligible Hospitals for their continued participation. In reflecting on all that happened in the program year, the NY Medicaid EHR Incentive Program would like to highlight some of the many accomplishments that took place in 2017:

The MEIPASS system opened for 2015 and 2016 Meaningful Use and 2016 Adopt, Implement, or Upgrade attestations.

Over 5,700 Medicaid Providers were granted almost $63 million in incentive funds.

The EHR Incentive Program support team answered 9,211 phone calls and 3,603 electronic requests for assistance.

A new EHR Incentive Program website launched in early 2017 and has since received more than 39,600 page views.

New training resources were added, including 13 interactive tutorials that have received more than 1,500 views.

Delayed: System Enhancements to the NCPDP Submission Clarification Field for Long Term Care Pharmacy Providers to Report Short Cycle Billing

The Department of Health has delayed implementation of system enhancements to improve the submission of Medicaid fee-for-service (FFS) pharmacy claims for Long Term Care (LTC) pharmacy providers by the addition of supplementary Submission Clarification Codes in field 420-DK. A communication will be sent out once a new implementation date has been set. The intent of short cycle dispensing is to reduce wasteful dispensing of outpatient prescription drugs in LTC facilities.

When this system enhancement is implemented, LTC pharmacy providers should indicate via an appropriate submission clarification code, when they are submitting claims for medications with short days' supply. Additionally, values 22-35 will have a prorated dispensing fee applied.

Upon implementation, the following list of values reported in field 420-DK will be available for claim submission for LTC pharmacy providers:

Valid Values

Short Name Description

Long Name Description

21

LTC14DAYLS

14 DAYS OR LESS (is not applicable due to CMS exclusion and/or manufacturer packaging may not be broken or special dispensing methodology [i.e. leave of absence, ebox, splitter dose]). Medication quantities are dispensed as billed

DAILY AND 3 DAY WEEKEND (pharmacy or remote dispensed daily during the week and combines multiple days dispensing for weekends)

30

LTCSHIFT

PER SHIFT DISPENSING

31

LTCMED

PER MED PASS DISPENSING

32

LTCPRN

PRN ON DEMAND

33

LTC7ORLES

7 DAYS OR LESS (cycle not otherwise represented)

34

LTC14DAY

14 DAY DISPENSING

35

LTC814DAY

8-14 DAYS DISPENSING (cycle not otherwise represented)

36

LTCOUT

OUTSIDE SHORT CYCLE (Claim was originally submitted to a payer other than Medicare Part D and was subsequently determined to be Part D)

The Department will review claims once the system enhancement is implemented to ensure compliance with the new policy. Contact the eMedNY Call Center at (800) 343–9000 for questions regarding claim submission for short cycle billing or any billing issue.